Date With the Doctor
by Zeng Li
Summary: Dr. Tomoe challenges Mimete, Kaori, and Eugeal in order to win a date with him.


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DATE WITH THE DOCTOR  


"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…" the possessed geneticist's laugh echoed through the high-ceilinged laboratory. "It's Friday, and I think we'll have a little bit of fun." He reached for the telephone at his work station.

"Hello…?" answered the tenor voice of his top assistant.

"Hello, Kaori Knight," Professor Tomoe said casually. "I have a deal to make with you, Eugeal, and Mimete."

"Why do they have to be in it?" Kaori retorted.

Tomoe laughed softly. "Because, competition is the heart of this little game."

Kaori sat on the edge of her desk and narrowed her eyes. "Mmmm…? Tell me more."

"I feel like having a good time tonight. I will go out on a date with whoever of you three successfully capture a pure heart crystal and are the first to return it to me."

"Is that right!? Well, then, I'll just have to try especially harder. Though I feel bad for Eugeal and Mimete… they don't stand a chance against me. Ha, ha, ha…!"

"Excellent, Kaori Knight." The professor hung up the phone for a few seconds then lifted the receiver again to call the other 2 witches invited into his little competition.

= = = =

Professor Tomoe sat at his work station, spouting his soft version of maniacal laughter while the witches worked with their own Daimon pods to create customized heart-snatchers.

"How cruel of me to put them at each other's throats," he mused aloud, enjoying the predicament that was sure to result. "But, with them out of the lab…I can go out and have a little fun for myself."

The transition from being in his lab to being inside his large house brought about a consciousness change in the professor. Out of the evil environment of the lab, his mind was free to think its own thoughts.

He remembered holding Hotaru up with both hands over his head as they played in the park. Her childish giggle as he'd twirl her around. Chasing butterflies by day and fireflies by night. Putting her to bed every night since she was a baby. The explosion in his lab that nearly killed her.

"Ugh…" Souichi Tomoe tensed up at the horrible memory, accidentally knocking his glasses to the ground as his hand reached for his head.

"Daddy…?" Hotaru's soft voice said to him. She reached down for his glasses and handed them to him.

A lock of platinum hair dropped over the professor's right eye as he looked down at her. "Thank you, honey…" he said, taking then replacing his glasses. "So, uh… How was your day?"

"Oh…" she walked beside him down the hall. "Okay, but I took a nap and had a bad dream."

"I know…" he said in a low voice, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I know……"

= = = =

"I'll show them…!" Mimete hastily donned her disguise and grabbed her heart-snatcher case. "I'll bring back a pure heart first and get Professor Tomoe all to myself!" She paused to feel the stars and hearts that figuratively swirled in her eyes.

Mimete walked out in search of her carefully chosen candidate.

Eugeal had also prepared herself with a heart-snatcher, climbing into her white car and speeding off in search of her target.

Kaori Knight seemed a little more casual about it. Being superior to all of the Witches 5, she felt confident that no matter what she did, she'd win the heart of the professor. Her daimon pod sought out its own target, floating silently through the air, homing in on the inanimate object it was destined to possess.

= = = =

"You picked on the wrong pure heart today, Mimete…!" said Sailor Jupiter, acting all flashy and ready to kick butt.

"You can't stop me! I'm determined to bring this pure heart back to the doctor so I can win his heart and go out on a date with him…!" Mimete allowed herself to be distracted as she fantasized. Next to her stood her monster created by the Daimon pod, who stared blankly while she went off into her own little world.

"I'm Sailor Venus, and I will make you give back that heart!" the blond Sailor Scout poised herself for battle with the heart-swallowing monster.

"You're pathetic, Mimete, and a little too hasty this time!" said Sailor Jupiter. "_Jupiter Thunder Crash!!_"

"No, no, no…!" screamed Mimete. "Niramu…don't let them get you!"

"Aaaah…!" her heart-snatcher, Niramu took the full force of Jupiter's lightning blast.

Sailor Venus added her powers and finished off Mimete's monster. The daimon pod was destroyed, and the pure heart was released and returned to the innocent victim.

"No…!! You Sailor Scouts will pay for this!!" Mimete sobbed. "You just cost me a date with the man of my dreams…!!" She ran off, but the two scouts didn't bother to follow.

"What the heck was that all about?" asked Jupiter.

Venus shrugged. "I don't know. She seems to have a few screws loose, though."

= = = =

Eugeal found her own victim at a video arcade. She released the power of her custom-made heart-snatcher to rob the random victim of his pure heart crystal. The humanoid monster attracted the attention of other arcade patrons, and most of them ran out screaming.

Two brave girls stayed, and they were Amara and Michelle…also known as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. While Eugeal was distracted with the heart-snatching, the two girls called upon the power of their respective planets to transform them into Sailor Scouts.

"I did it, I did it!!" Eugeal squeaked, holding the heart crystal. "Oh, doctor…here I come! It's just gonna be you and me tonight!"

"Not so fast!" said a tenor female voice behind her.

"Huh!?" Eugeal turned.

"I'm Sailor Uranus, and I will make you give back that pure heart you've stolen!"

"I don't think so! This heart is more important to me than ever, and there's absolutely no way you're getting it back!"

"Come on, Neptune. Let's show this lovebird what happens when she tries to steal the life of an innocent young man."

"Right…" Neptune agreed, preparing to summon the strength of her guardian.

"I won't let you…!!" Eugeal fought it, but the powers of the two scouts were too great for her and her heart-snatcher. Eugeal fled the scene without the heart crystal, but she was happy to at least survive the ordeal.

= = = =

Kaori Knight was the most experienced of Dr. Tomoe's girls with heart-snatchers, and she had also encounted the Sailor Scouts on several occasions. She had very low expectations of Mimete and Eugeal. She remained calm and confident that her plan would work.

"Who better to have a pure heart than a musician who loves his music…" she mused as the daimon pod possessed the saxophone of a street musician. She hung back around the corner of a building and waited for the daimon pod to release the heart-snatcher.

As it happened, Kaori was right there, eager to receive the crystal prize and bring it back to Dr. Tomoe. "Excellent work!" she said, handling the heart crystal. "No sense hanging around to wait for those pesky Sailor brats to thwart my plan." She didn't get far.

"Halt!" shouted a familiar voice. "I'm Sailor Mars, and I'm ordering you to give back that pure heart!"

"Speaking of the brats…" Kaori sneered to herself.

From behind her, another Sailor Scout darted by and reclaimed the heart crystal which hovered in a containment field of pink energy. It was Sailor Mercury.

"Don't think we're not onto you heart-snatchers," said Sailor Moon. "You've struck twice in the city today already, and now we're ready for you!"

"What!?" Kaori shrieked. "Mimete and Eugeal hit their targets already!? I have to hurry! Give me back that heart crystal, now!!"

Sailor Mercury was already replacing the pure heart crystal into its owner. Sailor Moon stood before the daimon monster. "I am the champion of justice! You don't stand a chance today or ever as long as I'm here! I am Sailor Moon...and in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"

"Yeah, we've heard that before," Kaori groaned. "Kaikeil, get me that heart back, no matter what it takes!"

"_Mars Fire…Ignite!!_" Sailor Mars released her counter-attack against the monster. The daimon's brass armor deflected the elemental focre.

"_Mercury Bubbles Blast!!_" the other young Sailor Scout called upon her planet's powers.

"Not as easy as you might think!" said Kaori as her heart-snatcher survived a second barrage from the scouts. "Kaikeil, stop fooling around and get that heart!"

"Right…" the brass female monster closed in on the victim again.

"I won't allow it!" said Sailor Moon, stepping in the way, but Kaikeil pushed her aside. "That does it!" she said as the monster prepared to extract the heart crystal a second time. "_Moon Final Heart Attack_!!"

"Not this time, Sailor Moon…!!!" Kaori screamed, but there was nothing she could do to stop the attack. The heart-snatcher was defeated, and Kaori's hopes of dating Professer Tomoe was drained. "Next time, you brats. I hope you're happy…" She teleported back to the lab.

= = = =

"It's not fair…! I'm just a rookie at this…" Mimete sobbed into her arms folded on the table top.

"I'll bet Kaori told the Sailor Scouts about our attempts so we'd lose and she'd win," Eugeal pouted. "If I get my hands on her…"

Kaori Knight materialized in the lab before the two witches.

"Oh…go ahead… He's yours," Mimete said between her tears.

Kaori put her hands on her hips. "Really? Well, if you must know, Sailor Moon came and foiled my plan."

Eugeal giggled at her failure.

Kaori got right up in Eugeal's face. "I don't suppose you two witches had anything to do with telling Sailor Moon where I'd be so she could stop me!?"

Mimete also started laughing, making Kaori suspect their guilt.

"You two will regret this!" Kaori pounced across the table and tackled Mimete. Eugeal joined the melee and tried to sedate Kaori, but to no avail.

Mimete bit Kaori's hand, but the older woman was too strong for her. Eugeal kept Kaori from mauling Mimete long enough that soon, the three girls were too spent and beat up to keep on fighting.

"We didn't tell the Sailor Scouts about your plan…" said Eugeal, trying to catch her breath.

"We thought you told them about us," Mimete straightened her glasses and patted dust off of her lab coat.

"I didn't have time to do that," said Kaori. "I was so intent on getting a heart crystal back here first that I didn't even think of doing that. But good idea for the next time…"

"Ugh…I guess we'll have to go to Dr. Tomoe and tell him the bad news…" said Eugeal.

"Tell me what?" the doctor stepped out of the shadows and towered over the collapsed girls.

"Professor!" Mimete was the first to her feet.

"Don't tell me that all three of you failed in your mission?"

"The stakes were too high…we were hasty…" said Eugeal.

"And we had a little innocent bad luck," Mimete added.

"Hrmph…" the doctor turned his back to the girls.

"And besides…we're too tired now to go anywhere. I'm going off to bed…" Kaori picked herself off the floor and limped out of the room.

"Fine. Perhaps I didn't want to go out with any of you failures anyway. Perhaps there's someone else in my life who I owe more time with other than you. It's your loss." Dr. Tomoe left them and returned to the main part of his house.

"Hello, Father," Hotaru greeted him as he entered the kitchen. "I thought you were going out somewhere tonight."

"My evening was cancelled. But all the better," he bent down and touched her cheek. "How's about you and I go downtown for dinner tonight. Kaori won't be around to cook anyway."

"That would be wonderful," Hotaru's eyes lit up with joy.

Souichi Tomoe smiled at his daughter and laughed lightly. "Come along, then. You earned it, just for being my little girl who no one can take away from me."

****

THE END

© 2000, written by Zeng. Based on characters from the TV series, Sailor Moon, created by Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation


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